


Day 1: Winter

by Tsukuyomi_chan



Series: Buddyfight 30 Days [1]
Category: Future Card Buddyfight
Genre: Disaster, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 01:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3433163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsukuyomi_chan/pseuds/Tsukuyomi_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gao convinces Rouga to try and have a hotpot party with all the people of Disaster.  Somewhat Rougao and Kyorou.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 1: Winter

**Author's Note:**

> This probably takes place sometime after Sengoku but before the chaos of episode 43, I’m not really sure. Ignore my usage of their Japanese way of talking it’s a habit.

Rouga can practically hear Kyoya laughing at him somewhere in the back of his mind.

“Aragami-senpai!” He hears that familiar voice call, and for a second actually considers just using Disaster Force to teleport out of there as quickly as possible. Of all the places to meet his rival, the grocery store was not one Rouga would have preferred.

“Mikado Gao…” He mumbles as the red and black-haired boy runs down the hall of deli meats to meet him, dressed in his usual sun-embroidered uniform. The boy seems almost dumbfounded to see him, and that made sense. Rouga was supposed to be at Sengoku Academy, but was back in Choutokyo because of Winter Break and Kyoya’s request. Also, he was dressed in completely casual winter clothes, with a grey coat and red scarf.

“Your hair’s… short again.” Gao comments offhandedly.

The lack of Disaster Force was another thing. He was so used to having it active all the time he forgot he looked almost completely different without it. Rouga reaches up and feels how short it is right now, the actual length of his hair. It’s strange, and he feels exposed without Disaster Force active and it long.

“So, what are you doing here?”

He’s dying of embarrassment. Kyoya had asked him a favour to go down to the grocery store and buy some more milk and a few snacks and sweets, and Rouga had thought it was suspicious. Any servant could have gone to get it, but Kyoya had insisted that he couldn’t trouble any of the servants since they were on Winter Break, apparently. The mansion was empty except for the eight of them in Disaster just hanging out. He had complained for Sofia to get it like usual, but Kyoya insisted that she was busy on another errand. Also, Kyoya had done that smile that meant he wasn’t going to let up until Rouga did whatever it was he wanted.

This had to be a set up.

“Shopping.” Rouga grumbles in response.

“Senpai, you don’t have to be at Sengoku for training?”

“It’s Winter Break. It’s the same for you, isn’t it?” He replies simply. “I’m number one there, so I can do whatever I want.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Gao laughs, and it dies off awkwardly. Rouga doesn’t have much to say too. The last time he had seen Gao in person, that was after their fight at Sengoku, and Ryuuenji Tasuku had tried to arrest him before Kyoya had sent his usual forces to go fetch him. At least Gao was still caught up in the delusion of friendship, so he wasn’t going to report Rouga to the police. If it was anyone else he might actually be in a bit of trouble.

“So, what are you here to buy?” Gao asks as they walk down an aisle.

“Some milk, and some snacks. Preferably chocolates or cookies or chocolate cookies.” Kyoya liked chewing on those while working, although it was always from some high-class bakery. Rouga had tried one before, and it barely tasted any different from the ones you could find in any convenience store though.

“Heh? So you like sweets?”

“I don’t. Kyoya likes them, and he wants some, and he made me get them today since Sofia’s out.” Rouga says, silently cursing them both. Curse Kyoya for making him come out here and have this conversation. Curse Sofia for going along with every one of Kyoya’s messed up plans. Curse himself for going along with it too.

Gao stops walking, and Rouga realizes his slip-up. Sofia had been the vice president at Gao’s school, and who hadn’t heard of Kyoya Gaen from the Gaen Financial Group.

“So those are your friends.” He responds, and Rouga is so glad that either Gao hasn’t realized or Gao has ignored it.

“They are not my friends. I don’t need those.” Rouga mumbles those words once again to the boy.

“But you’re hanging out with them, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t as if Rouga had a choice though. He had nowhere else to go, plus Kyoya liked to keep track of everything and everyone. “In a sense.” He turns down an aisle quickly, in hopes to gain some distance from the boy.

“Senpai, the milk’s down this aisle.” Gao says, and Rouga grumbles an incomprehensible response to that as he turns and heads down the right aisle this time. He grabs a carton and places it in the shopping bag, then continues forwards towards what he guessed might be the snacks section.

“The snacks are at the other end of the store.” Gao says.

Rouga’s face heats up with embarrassment, and he grumbles an “I knew that” as he turns and makes sure Gao cannot see his red face no matter what. They reach the other end of the store (why is a mere grocery store so big), and Rouga grabs three packages of cookies similar to what Kyoya likes. He stops at the bags of chips that Shido keeps on whining about whenever Davide eats his supply, and considers buying some just to spite both of them.

He decides no, Kyoya’s money is too good to spend on either of them in any way.

The items fill up one of the plastic shopping bags, and Rouga figures that’s enough of him hanging outside for the day and heads for where he remembers the checkout lines are.

“Senpai, what are you doing after this?” Gao says, starting up yet another conversation.

“Nothing.”

“Are you going to go hang out with your friends?”

“No.”

“Are you going to go out and have some fun? The lake downtown froze over, so they’ve turned it into a skating rink! I’m planning on going next weekend with Baku and Kuguru and Kiri and the others! You should join us!”

“We both know the answer to that.”

Gao chuckles. “Yeah, I figured. But it doesn’t hurt to try. But everyone should have some fun in the winter cold. It’s even snowing! There’s snow everywhere when you look outside! It’s perfect for building snowmen, having snowball fights, making snow angels, catching snowflakes─”

_─and Rouga had first met Kyoya in winter on a snowy day where he had first thought Kyoya was some stuck up snobbish kid come to make fun of them and Rouga was going to put him in his place and was winning too until Kyoya’s parents came along and then Kyoya told him to become friends with him and Rouga had gained a family that day and─_

_─he was a kid again, watching Kyoya play in the snow alongside him, smiling, laughing truthfully, building terrible snow models of favourite monsters and throwing snowballs at each other and it was actually fun and the last time that had happened was four years ago and there was no way he could ever go back to those times again after all that had happened so he didn’t want anything to do with the snow anymore so─_

“─I hate the snow.” Rouga says bluntly.

Gao’s quiet, and Rouga wonders if he realizes something about it, about anything. Probably not. He’s such a naïve kid.

“There are other winter activities to do then, that don’t involve snow!” Gao says. “Christmas is coming up, so you can always hang up some decorations, or make some festive gingerbread houses!”

“I doubt any them are in the festive spirit.” Rouga didn’t want any of them to get into the festive spirit. He remembered last year Kabala had made some weirdly shaped Christmas cookies that made Shido and Davide run into walls without thinking, and ever since then, he did not trust anything put on the dinner table that he didn’t personally watch Kyoya’s chefs make, even a bit. This was the same for Sofia and Gremlin, and at least they had an unspoken agreement to report to each other whenever the scientist had messed with the food again.

“But you still need to get together with some people and do some winter activities.” Gao continually protests. His eyes widen, and he pounds his right fist into his other palm. “I got it! If you really want to fit the winter mood, you gotta have a hotpot party! Particularly sukiyaki!” Gao smiles. “The more people there are, the better the party!”

“That sounds like a terrible idea.” Rouga says, thinking about the eight of them in Disaster actually trying to socialize around a pot of cooking food.

“You never know until you try! This way!” Gao grabs his hand, and it makes Rouga actually reel back in surprise because why was this happening to him, he is not supposed to have a random conversation like this with his rival. They’re nearly at the checkout lines too when Gao pulls him back into the depths of the grocery store. “Let’s go get some sukiyaki supplies!”

“Wait, are you serious?!”

“Of course!” Gao smiles, and they stop in the vegetable section. He grabs a plastic bag, then begins packing all sorts of greens into it. “Come on, you pick out the ones you like too.”

“I don’t really…” Rouga watches in amazement as Gao zips around the entire section of the store, picking up all sorts of vegetables with names he’s never seen before. To be honest, he’s only ever seen the after products of cookings, or meat in its most natural form (still a living animal). This is why the servants and Sofia does the shopping.

“How many people are going to be there?”

“Eight…” Rouga responds without thinking.

“Alright, then I guess around this much cabbage would do.” Gao picks up a whole bushel and places it in the bag. “And this much for that, and this much…”

Rouga just stands there, thinking next time he should actually, maybe, try to say thank you to Sofia for handling this every week.

“Senpai, let’s go get the meat now.” Gao says, and Rouga brings himself back to the present, staring at the large bag filled to the brim with all sorts of vegetables. They (mostly Gao) get all of the ingredients, and then finally line up to check out the items fifteen minutes later.

Rouga looks down at the four bags full of sukiyaki supplies he was holding, with Gao holding the milk and snacks he had originally come here for. “W-Why…”

“Because you seemed less objective to this idea.” Gao says, guessing his question before he finishes it. “You frowned less at it. And everyone deserves fun around the holiday season. Everyone!”

Rouga couldn’t believe this was his rival. A kid too naïve and caught up in himself and his ideals and too helpful and kind to everyone. A kid trying to become his friend. “You’re such an idiot, Kyoya…” How was Kyoya going to convince this kid to use the Dark Core, with Gao’s stubbornness at his attitude for good. Hyoryu Kiri, maybe, with that kid’s confidence problems. But Gao?

“Gao-niichan! Hurry up or we’ll leave you behind!” Rouga turns and sees a small girl with light brown hair in a style similar to Gao’s yelling at them from the doorway, alongside a man with dark hair waving at them.

“Yeah, I’ll be right over! I’m just helping out a friend!” Gao yells back, and finishes putting the bags of food and supplies onto the checkout counter, and the employee starts scanning each item. The final price shows up on the screen, and Gao stares at it in shock as Rouga pulls out Kyoya’s credit card and hands it to the employee to pay for the items.

“Senpai, you’re rich?!” Gao asks as Rouga picks up all the bags (five in total) of food.

“In a way, I guess.” it was Kyoya’s money and Kyoya had too much of it anyways and as a result didn’t care what he spent it on. “You didn’t pay attention to the price of the items?”

“Well… usually my mom or dad does that. I just pick the things out.” Gao admits, and his face blushes a bit and Rouga realizes that it’s somewhat cute and that this is definitely not what rivals are supposed to do together.

And another shout from Gao’s little sister brings them both back to the present.

“I should go… Hanako and my dad are waiting.”

“Yeah…”

“You should go too, senpai. Aren’t your… acquaintances waiting?”

He doesn’t miss how Gao avoids the word “friends”. He looks down at the bags full of hotpot ingredients and thinks about how ridiculous of an idea this was, how he was actually going to try and eat hotpot with the others. With Kyoya. It’s ludicrous, but it would take a miracle, honestly, for them to be able to do something like that sincerely again.

“Well, thanks, I guess…” Rouga mumbles, and Gao has that smile that spreads to ever corner of his face that just makes his aura so bright it makes Rouga a bit uncomfortable how happy one person could possibly be, especially around him. It gives him an annoyingly warm feeling that he can’t say he doesn’t like though.

“That’s what friends are for!”

“I’ve already said it; you’re my rival, nothing else.” Rouga repeats, and Gao laughs. He waves and starts walking away to his family.

“Bye, Aragami-senpai!

“Bye…” And Rouga’s left standing alone in the middle of the sidewalk outside the grocery store. He sighs, then begins walking back to Kyoya’s mansion.

It’s dark by the time Rouga gets back (it’s five o’clock the days are short and because of that Rouga nearly slips in a frozen puddle and curses his luck for the millionth time), since because of all the snow the bus he had used to get to the store was shut down and he had to walk the whole way. Throughout the entire way he constantly wonders whether or not to just ditch the hotpot ingredients since what’s the point to begin with, but he never does, and he finally reaches the front door of Kyoya’s mansion.

When he goes inside, he finds Kyoya on a sofa in the room with that wall-to-wall TV, reading a book. Rouga dumps the bags on the ground, then picks up the one with the snacks in it and drops it on the coffee table beside the sofa. “Here.”

“Welcome back.” Kyoya says, closing his book. “You sure took your time.”

“I got held up. The bus I took was unavailable due to the snow.” Rouga replies, picks up the bags of sukiyaki supplies and begins to walk out of the room again when Kyoya speaks.

“Did you meet anyone fun there?” Rouga freezes, and turns around to see Kyoya’s casually smiling face, and that basically confirms his suspicions that he was set up from the start.

“Of course not.” He grumbles, and tries to walk out of the room again. His attempt is once again foiled by Kyoya opening his mouth.

“What did you buy?” Kyoya actually gets up and walks over to him, peering into the bags he was holding. “Sukiyaki ingredients?”

Rouga can’t think of an excuse, so he uses Gao’s. “Its winter and I felt like it. Is that a problem?”

Kyoya seems extremely amused. “Not at all. It is dinner time.” He takes two of the bags from Rouga and walks happily past him.

“Hey, where are you going? And with all that…” He follows Kyoya all the way into the dining hall, where Kyoya sets the bags down on the table and begins taking the items out.

“Setting up for dinner of course, since you bought everything for it.” Kyoya says, as if it was obvious. “How about you help set up? I’m pretty sure we need to prepare the ingredients first before cooking them.”

“Of course you have to wash them.” And then Rouga realizes how bizarre the whole situation was. “Are you serious?!”

“Rouga,” and he pauses for Kyoya to turn around with an expression that is so serious it’s almost funny. “It’s winter, and I’m bored. Besides, sukiyaki’s something to be enjoyed with friends.”

There was that word again. He sighs. What else could he do anyways? So Rouga walks over and helps Kyoya bring all the food into the kitchen, and Kyoya nearly cuts himself with the knife three times while trying to chop up the lettuce, drops a plate on the ground and breaks it, and breaks three eggs tragically, scattering eggshells everywhere on the kitchen counter. Rouga is reminded all too clearly why Kyoya hires cooks in the first place, and it has nothing to do with the excess money at all. He isn’t much better though, nearly dropping a knife on his foot and a pot colliding with his head at least two times.

It is seven o’clock before they (somehow) manage to get almost everything ready to start cooking, and Kyoya is searching through the cupboards and drawers of the kitchen for the portable stove to put the pot on when Rouga finally remembers. Once, when they were kids and were camping, Kyoya nearly burnt down the forest around them trying to start a campfire for roasting marshmallows.

Rouga grabs Kyoya’s hand to prevent him from doing anything further. “Please. Call Sofia or Gremlin to help now before you burn down the entire mansion.” He says, since he isn’t sure how to use or find the device either.

Kyoya pouts at him, but still pulls out his phone and makes the call. Within seconds, Sofia appears out of a portal behind them and takes out the portable stove from the cupboard that Kyoya had first looked in but apparently missed. Gremlin shows up too, and is much better at cutting up the meat than Rouga is (he has that smug expression on his face when Kyoya praises him, and Rouga turns away before the urge to punch the deckbuilder becomes too strong).

Terumi comes down from upstairs, since its dinner time, and helps set up the table. Kabala shows up halfway through the endeavour, praising Rouga for the idea (that was not the kind of praise Rouga wanted at all). Shido and Davide eventually show up, arguing with each other like usual. Davide starts complaining that he doesn’t like the stuffy dining hall and would rather just eat in front of the TV, and that somehow ends up with all of them working together to bring everything into the TV room and settling on the sofa around the coffee table where the pot is, and the TV is turned on to some random buddyfighting channel.

And before Rouga realizes it, all of Disaster is seated around a boiling pot snatching food from each other. Davide shouts obscenities at the TV while Shido comments something about how he would have done this or that instead to each move the buddyfighters do, and they get into another argument over which move would be best and miss the rest of the fight. Gremlin is silently judging what they say, Rouga can tell, and annoyingly snatches up almost half of the cooked meat once Sofia announces it’s ready. Kabala’s ranting about something that went wrong in research today to anyone who will listen. Terumi’s generally silent, but does take her share of the noodles, and grips her chopsticks especially hard when a commercial with some rapping background music comes on the TV. She and Sofia eventually get swept up into Shido and Davide’s argument about who was the worse buddyfighter, and it’s unclear whether they’re talking about the two on TV or the two guys themselves.

“This is all your fault.” Rouga says to Kyoya, who just smiles back.

“What are you talking about? You’re the one that suggested this.”

“I did no such thing.” Mikado Gao did, and he went along with it because of that stupid smile of his. But Rouga would rather let Shido beat him in a buddyfight than admit that out loud to Kyoya of all people.

“Rouga, are you having fun?”

“Of course not.” Rouga snaps, and snatches a piece of meat into his bowl before Davide gets his hands on it.

It’s a real mess of a day, and by the end, Rouga has a grudging respect for Mikado Gao’s choice of food at least.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. In the raw, Gao refers to Rouga as “Aragami-senpai” out of manners. I would honestly recommend watching the raw just for respectful and polite Gao.  
> 2\. Sukiyaki’s a type of hotpot that the Japanese enjoy in winter  
> 3\. Whoops this ended up way longer than planned


End file.
